Air safety directive grounds some flights in Mexico

MEXICO CITY – The Mexican airline Interjet says it's had to cancel some flights due to a mandatory safety inspection of its Russian-made Superjet 100 aircraft.

Russian authorities issued the directive on Dec. 23 after cracks were found in a part on one of the Sukhoi planes. Interjet is among the largest customers for the relatively new Superjet, with more than 20 in its fleet.

Mexico's consumer protection agency says at least 25 flights and more than 680 passengers have been affected.

The consumer agency initially issued an erroneous communique confusing the Superjet with the Tupelov-154 model that crashed in the Black Sea on Sunday, killing 92 people. The Tupelov is a completely different, much older design made by another company.